Applicability of ARFI elastography in the evaluation of canine prostatic alterations detected by b-mode and Doppler Ultrasonography

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the applicability of ARFI elastography for the complementary diagnosis of canine prostatic alterations. Twenty-two healthy dogs and 45 with prostatic alterations were diagnosed by the association of general and specific physical exams. Complete blood count, B-mode and Doppler ultrasound were performed. For the elastography study, tissue homogeneity and deformity were verified using the elastogram, and the shear velocities of the left and right lobes of all prostates were obtained. The change in tissue homogeneity was observed in 62.2% of the animals, while the shear speed was significantly higher in dogs with prostatic alterations, with a cut-off point > 2.35m/s as an indication of change. All animals in both groups were non-deformable. It was concluded that ARFI elastography is capable of providing qualitative and quantitative results that assist in the diagnosis of canine prostatic alterations in a non-invasive way.

Canine prostatic serum esterase and strain and 2D‐shear wave sonoelastography for evaluation of normal prostate in dogs: Preliminary results

“…In healthy dogs, the prostate has been described with a homogeneous and soft/middle soft appearance, with increasing stiffness in case of disorders, similar to what is currently observed in human medicine (Cintra et al, 2020;Correas et al, 2013;Domosławska et al, 2018;Feliciano et al, 2015;Grosu et al, 2019;Jeon et al, 2015).…”

“…ARFI elastography is an imaging technique that provides quantitative and qualitative measurements of tissue stiffness based on short, high‐intensity acoustic pulses to deform the tissue and create a static greyscale map (elastogram) that represents the relative stiffness of the tissue in the imaged region. The elastogram can then be compared to the corresponding conventional US image and, in general, lighter areas represent more deformable tissue compared with darker areas (Cintra et al, 2020; Sigrist et al, 2017).…”

Ultrasound-Based Technologies for the Evaluation of Testicles in the Dog: Keystones and Breakthroughs

“…proposed for the examination of nonfocal alterations of the testis, aiding in infertility aetiology determination [26,163,164]. In veterinary medicine, studies have been conducted to apply UEl to canine and feline normal and pathological conditions in various organs, including the spleen, liver, kidney, prostate [165][166][167][168], adrenal glands [169], skin [170], lymph nodes [133,171], pancreas [172], small intestine mucosa [173], and placenta [174]. The qualitative study on foetal lungs and liver during the final days of intrauterine development were also reported, revealing tissue stiffness changes [175].…”

Use of New Ultrasonography Methods for Detecting Neoplasms in Dogs and Cats: A Review

“…A study of dogs assessed their tissue homogeneity, deformation capacity, and shearwave velocity, and it revealed that the shear-wave velocity was significantly higher in prostatic alterations when compared to normal prostatic tissue [10]. The same authors suggested that a velocity greater than 2.35 m/s is potentially associated with malignant lesions.…”

“…Several studies have used elastography for assessing hepatic fibrosis in humans as a preliminary assessment before tissue biopsies or for predicting and detecting malignancy [5,7], as well as for assessing acute and chronic kidney diseases [8]. In veterinary medicine, recent studies have explored elastography for evaluating the prostate [9][10][11], liver [12], and kidneys in dogs and cats [2,9], as well as for assessing hepatic fibrosis [13], lymph nodes [2,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], and mammary neoplasms [1,4,[23][24][25]. Elastography has been shown to be a promising diagnostic method in the evaluation and prediction of neoplasm malignancy, mainly due to its safety and low invasiveness [1].…”